Paste the navigation code here

Pages

Monday, March 24, 2014

Organic Alfalfa Sprouts

Alfalfa sprouts are one of the quickest growing sprouts in the sprouting universe. Their mild flavor, delicious crunch, amazing nutrition, and ease of growth makes alfalfa sprouts one of the most popular and best known of the sprouts. Alfalfa leaves are a deep green providing excellent visual appeal for your salads or sandwiches.

Alfalfa sprout recipe...

A quart jar with a lid with holes is one of the best and simples ways to start your sprouts. Make sure the holes are smaller than the seed size.

Measure two tablespoons of alfalfa seed and rinse or remove any debris.

Transfer your seed to the quart mason jar "sprouter". Add 3 times as much cool water as there are seeds. Swish seeds around in the water to assure uniform water contact for all the seeds. Allow to soak for 8 hours.

Drain off the water you soaked in. (You may choose to use it in cooking it is full of nutrients.)

Rinse with cool water. Drain well.

Set your jar "sprouter" out of direct sunlight and at room temperature (70F is ideal) between rinses. It is during this time that the sprouts grow. I have been putting the sprouts on a counter out of direct sunlight.

Rinse and drain every 8-12 hours for 3 days.

It is key to drain very completely. The most typical reason for poor sprouts is incomplete drainage. Even the best sprouting lid can still retain water.

On the 4th day expose your sprouts to indirect sunlight. Almost any light will do.

You may de-hull your sprouts any time during day 5-6.

After the final rinse drain very thoroughly and let the sprouts dry a little. They will store much better if we minimize the surface moisture,

Transfer the sprouts to a zip lock bag or sealed container so you can reuse your jars. If you have more jars you can store them in the original jar. Just cap the jar so they don't dry out.

The yield of 7 to 1 for Alfalfa sprouts mean the sprouts will weigh 7 times as much as the seed you start with. But they will increase in volume even more. So don't exceed 2 tablespoons per quart jar.